N.B.:  I am posting this on behalf of Stephen Stewart in response to the
Mark Twain Forum book review of February 16, 2002.  Because of server
message length restrictons, the response will be transmitted in two
parts.  -- K.B.
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Part II

6)FROM THE BOOK: That "Governments and Religions start wars" was the lesson
learned at Wounded Knee Creek. The lesson is indeed presented as a sweeping
irony in the novel; and despite what the review says, it is commented on by
the characters, page 279,—"a huge misunderstanding, that was!" Doubtless,
war is the result of bad government, and war is the result of bad religion.
The reader is by the review forced to "choose" what the reviewer has failed
to comprehend and denote. That "acculturation can prevent war" is another
"sweeping irony, unimaginably greater in scope" in the novel when it is tied
to the association of the Mills family described by Twain in the novel,—i.e.
we’re all in this thing together,— why war when humanity is one
family,....when the well-being of the whole depends on the well-being of
all, as the Mills families association clearly demonstrates by their example
of natural human behavior or love between family members. In other words,
war is unnatural human behavior, and only serves as a bad example of human
conduct, as it says in the novel, on page 233.

A person named Wovoka founded the Ghost Dance religion of the western
American Indians. While sick with a fever in 1889, he dreamed that he was
lifted into the sky where the Great Spirit-(A.K.A.-God) talked to him. He
also saw all of the old-time Indians living a happy life in his dream. The
Great Spirit taught Wovoka some songs and a new dance, and told him to teach
the Indians to stop fighting and to lead a good life. Then no one would ever
grow old, be sick, or go hungry. All the dead Indians and buffalo would come
back to life.

Wovoka was a Piute Indian, born in Nevada. His father had been a profit
before him. Adopted as a boy by a white settler named David Wilson, Wovoka
was also known as Jack Wilson.

The Ghost Dance was a religious movement among American Indians of the
Western United States in the 1800's. It offered the Indians hope of
spiritual renewal and a return to their old way of living. The religion
promised that all of the dead Indian ancestors and all game animals would
come back to life if the Indians danced. In some renditions of this story,
all settlers are drowned by rains, much the same as the story of Noah’s Ark,
which might be the origin?

The religion centered on a ceremony called the Ghost Dance, which could
differ somewhat from one group or tribe to another.

The Ghost Dance religion was as nonviolent as any other religion that prays
people to death, and U.S. Army leaders feared it would lead to a Sioux
uprising in what is now South Dakota. The U.S Army demanded that the Sioux
stop dancing the Ghost Dance, then the Sioux tried to escape to where they
could dance all they wanted, but the U.S. Army caught-up to and massacred
Sioux followers of the religion at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. That
was pretty much the last of the Sioux uprising in the U.S..

It doesn't make any difference whether the Indians learn the Ghost Dance
Religion from Wovoka or Tom Sawyer or it filtered down during Wovoka’s
adoption by the Wilson family from Noah’s Ark. The point is, religion, got
these Indians wiped out,— religions start wars. Remind us of anything? How
about when Osama bin Laden said they had to bomb the twin-towers and the
pentagon because, Allah-( A.K.A.- God), told his followers to do it.
Religion has been at the start of many wars in history, these aspects of
religion and government just might be considered bad: Lets take a look? It
is of record what Twain thought. Now let's see, W.W.II, the great Aryan
nation of Hitler, yes that was bad (killed over 6 million people, most of
them Jewish), Northern Ireland Catholic vs. Protestant stupidity, yes, that
has gone on for years and killed many people, middle-east conflict, death
all over forever. Need we proceed?

In the novel the first steamboat that Huck and Tom and Jim get on is called
the Jack Wilson-(A.K.A.—Wovoka), page 244,- coincidence or irony? The name
Wovodka instead of Wovoka is sure enough Twain, and the Indians have begun
to write books about their problems with alcohol both past and present day.
The reviewer might have noticed Chief Ten Beers, and Kicking Beer—the Indian
that picked up Jim’s old shirt, page 212, that he had danced in? The novel
refers to some other Indians also. American Indians actually had a great
chief named "Ten Bears" who was very powerful, then "Kicking Bear" is the
real life Indian that came up with what the Indians called their "Ghost
Shirts" that were part of the Ghost Dance religion. The "Ghost Shirts" were
supposedly bulletproof. There are photographs of dead Indians at Wounded
Knee, the final massacre, wearing the Ghost Shirts. A Ghost Shirt may also
be seen at the Smithsonian Institute.

At the end of the novel, in the epilog, Huck first mentions the word
"Collaborate," which is the only intention in the title. This is Twain
hunting for larger game, "the masses." This is known Twain sentiment, that
enemies can be collaborated with or worked with, because what have been
called our enemies are not our enemies at all—only that "damned human race."
Huck also gives an example of different cultures wiping out other cultures
like the story of the Indians he’s been telling, then he goes on to say that
it is his hope that such foolishness stops because he doesn't want to see
any culture be left out by being wiped-out, because of, as mentioned before
in the novel along with homogeneity, acculturation. The picture drawn in the
novel possesses humor like Twain, heart like Twain, writing like Twain,
truth like Twain, convictions of Twain, sentiments that are Twain’s for "the
masses" like Twain, not to mention "sweeping ironies" like Twain. Then some
of the novel is in Twain’s own hand, that is explained at the end of the
novel, as an integral part of a story. All of this contributes to a
contemporary profile of Twain.

The deeper Wisdom of Solomon expressed in the novel is that Solomon insured
the safety of his Kingdom by taking as wives the daughters of rulers from
neighboring Kingdoms. No one is going to attack their own daughter or
grandchildren, or allow their baby to be cut in two. This is acculturation
as expressed in the novel. As the world shrinks, which is a main theme
discussion in the novel, more people have more relatives spread throughout
the world. Acculturation has been occurring naturally. As the world shrinks
because of advanced communication and transportation acculturation will
naturally speed up. It is the future of humanity on the one hand, combined
with, humanity is all one family on the other hand. If it isn’t considered
so already, it should be or will be very soon that no government or religion
can attack another government or religion without having citizens attacking
their own family members.

There is then tremendous potential for students, and as Mark Twain and the
novel intend, humanity as well. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain is
after slavery, monarchy, lynching, religion, government, mobs, kings, dukes,
racism, shams of every sort, class struggle, and he included first and
foremost liberty for Jim and Huck. Most of these issues from Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn Twain emphatically [didactically] covered again in his
Connecticut Yankee, and some of his other works such as Following The
Equator. It can be taken on trust or unambiguously shown that Twain was
reaching higher in his sequel to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. So it is
when we examine Twain’s sequel, and remember Twain said, and his record
indisputably shows, that he always hunted for bigger game,— "the masses"
that Twain is after in the sequel.

Huck’s obviously normal character growth, could not competently be described
as a loss of innocence. Written by Twain and his collaborator the sequel,
from the beginning (Cooper Indians vs. real Indians), shocks the reader into
realization that some realities are arbitrary by using alternative
realities. In this way the reader is presented a surrealist revelation that
is a deeper and truer example of human nature. By use of surrealist
symbolism, there is a giant mule in the novel, it represents race relations,
because mules cannot bear offspring. Unlike the mule, sexual relations
between humans produce fertile offspring. In order to clarify the
unification of all persons [acculturation] understanding is required. Racism
is the belief that humans can be divided into races. Biologist and
anthropologist on the other hand, believe that the assignment of a racial
label to any group of people is arbitrary. Biologist clarify race as
subdivision of a plant or animal species. Members of the same species are
similar in many ways. Chiefly, they breed with one another and produce
fertile offspring. Members of different species don’t usually produce
fertile offspring. All human beings belong to the subspecies Homo sapiens
sapiens. Physical anthropologist doubt that pure or separate human races
ever existed. People have always taken mates from outside their own gene
pools. Geographical gene pools cause stereotypical racial labels, or name
calling. Is Sasquatch the offspring of man and bear? Sasquatch is more like
voodoo, or some religious beliefs, or stereotypical racial labels, but
beyond any doubt a alternative reality depicted in the novel.

Lets not forget to go where the novel intends when collaboration, (by
surrealistic compare and contrast with what happened between the Indians
because of their religion and the U.S. government is further compared to the
situation in the world today where wars are prevalent), comes to mean
working with what you have been misled to believe are your enemies to change
governments and the religions on earth so those governments and religions
will stop killing citizens.

6)FROM THE REVIEW: The purpose of a book review is to announce the
publication of a book, tell what it is about, and evaluate it. The value of
a book review is based on the reviewer’s responsibleness in judging the
book. The book review depends on the reviewers broad knowledge of the
subjects in the book being reviewed, and the ability to clearly communicate
those subjects.

The book review of Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Collaboration as it stands, is a
comparison of this book with Huckleberry Finn, and a comparison of two
authors. Neither of the two comparisons are responsible to the book, nor do
they attend the purpose of a book review. When this inattention is
accompanied by both overlooking what is in the book under review and
interjecting into the review what is not in the book being reviewed, the
results are fallacious. Even worse, is a complete waste of time, when the
reviewer feels free to create his own fiction. Imagine this tumble-bug
interesting himself in Huck’s education, grammar, punctuation, and spelling,
then failing to perceive Huck’s true character as written by Twain in
Huckleberry Finn? Twain was criticized for portraying a Huck that possessed
English skills far beyond Huck’s level of education conveyed in Huckleberry
Finn. ("Mark Twain makes the hero of his new book tell the story in what is
supposed to be a boy's dialect. On the very second page this "low-down,"
uneducated urchin is made to say "commence," where any boy, especially if he
hadn't been to school, would have said "begin." The less education the more
Anglo-Saxon, and, generally, the better grammar. Mark ought to know
this."—Boston Globe Feb. 20, 1885) The significance of that criticism was
not overlooked in the sequel that is at once perceived by the realistic eye
as a what if novel, i.e. what if Twain had taken the advice of critics that
said Huck’s grammar, spelling, and punctuation were far beyond Huck’s
reported education? What if Twain had the knowledge we possess today and it

was combined with the knowledge, sentiments, and convictions that he
obviously had and wrote about? What if Twain had completed the book? Those
are three substantial what if’s to consider when reading the novel. The
recent appearance of half the original Huckleberry Finn manuscript was
perhaps the largest problem facing any writer attempting to complete the
sequel. There were also three other what if’s to consider before writing the
sequel, i.e. what if the rest of the sequel in Twain’s hand already existed
somewhere? What if someone found a original second half of the sequel by
Twain, then printed it, and fraudulently claimed it as their own? What if
someone noticed the second half could have only been written by Twain and
then challenged the person fraudulently claiming the writing of the second
half as their own? That would be a huge accusation of fraud without any
corroborative helps anywhere, except in the writing itself. All of those
what if’s go unattended by the reviewer. Lets make it perfectly clear, there
was no attempt made to imitate Twain’s dialect narration, as that could
bring accusations of fraud the drift was more to its opposite. When faced
with so many what if’s, Twain’s collaborators writing may surpass any
problem ever faced by Twain because the reviewer lets his cat out of the
bag, which can be seen in paragraph six of the review when the reviewer
writes, "Stewart’s description of Tom’s planning and performance is
genuinely funny, and blamed if it don’t sound like Huck Finn hisself. Much
of the dialect does sound like Huck Finn." A closer examination of the novel
will surely show that Huck has a writing ability more commensurate to the
education level of Huck’s character described in the Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. Anachronisms,—referencing 2) above,—are the simplest
method of producing a work that is impossible to confuse with Twain’s era,
so no charge of fraud could be brought;—The what if’s are sagaciously
handled. Generally, it would be nice to know something about the contents of
a book from a book review. For whatever reasons, the review does not follow
the book. Obvious in the review, i.e. "lyrical," "funny," "hilarious,"
"blamed if it don’t sound like Huck Finn hisself," "sweeping irony,"
"chilling genius," the reviewer admired the novel, but he does not clearly
state it,— this obscure explanation clearly communicates the stereotypical,
tainted by scandalmongers, antiquated Twain portrait held by the reviewer,
which is biasing the description of a progressive profile of Twain presented
in the novel. As the reviewer states, this is "confounding," which is
permissible, because new information normally tends to be perceived as
"confounding" at first.

7)FROM THE BOOK: A rapt "introduction to a sure-for-certain boy" with
plausible and known character traits as depicted in Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. A historical story of the causes of war, merged with
narrative of acculturation by humanity,— past, present, and future. A
genuine progressive and insuppressible profile of Twain emerges;—To clarify,
Twain had convictions which were not widely acceptable or easily promotable
in the priggish, prudish, or Victorian era in which Twain wrote. Twain
surreptitiously included his convictions in his works, (one of the most
striking of these was during what has been referred to as the so-called
dark-period, where he writes in Following The Equator Chapter 27, "These
were indeed wonderful people, the Natives. They should have been crossed
with the Whites. It would have improved the Whites and done the Natives no
harm." which is acculturation incarnate). Possibly the reviewer watched
Halle Berry’s acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. A speech by a dual
gene pool [acculturated incarnate] American that would have been much
different had she command of contemporary knowledge of acculturation that
explains her arrival at this point in history, which is expressed in the
novel under review. The exposition of Twain’s convictions promote a
progressive profile of Twain that is not generally focused on, or so
explicitly unraveled. Undeniably the progressive profile of Twain emerging
in this novel,— that Twain’s collaborator refers to as, "The essence of
Twain," would be most remarkable in another publication, where the
progressive profile and the causes for it being obscured will be more well
defined by the collaborator,—but for those wanting the earliest exposition;
"Twain’s essence," is available in Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Collaboration, for
those that can realize it.

7)FROM THE REVIEW: An unwarranted, irresponsible in this venue separate
issue of, comparing Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Collaboration with Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. No appreciation that Twain was perpetually didactic,
because he was always instructing, or educating, by his process of
informing. The old prevailing illogical portrait of Twain remains, skewed,
and suppressing.

8)FROM THE BOOK: "The essence of Twain." A tale of acculturation that has
been progressing longer than written history. The distinct history of
humanity past, present, and future. A plot that informs humanity of where it
has been and where it is going.

8)FROM THE REVIEW: A few parts of the plot!

9)FROM THE BOOK: Numerous testimonials have arrived, a few of them are
recorded below;

"A notable reminder of Huck, Twain, and Genius."

"This novel contains more truth than any fiction I’ve ever read."

"It tells about exactly what is going on today."

"I’ve never read a book with such a big idea in it."

"I never knew Mark Twain was that funny, or that smart. The origin of Huck’s
name bowled me over,- smart, aggressive and funny,- but who knew!"

"Thanks for letting me see your information. You certainly have done a lot
of work on this topic."

"It is very funny on the surface, with unrivaled profundity elsewhere in
literature."

"Twain would be proud of profound truths so funny, and their usefulness."

"Knowing where humanity is going, should help give us peace, instead of war
on our journey. Your book should be read by everybody!"

"I loved it."

"Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Collaboration taught me more history than I learned
in all my years at college while getting my bachelors degree. Imagine that
from one little novel?"

"Memories of good ole Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer started to gush in when I was
reading your book. Its been a long time. Thank you."

"Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Collaboration is an expression of great approval and
high esteem for Mark Twain."

"Your novel is seamless, without the annotation on page 73, I wouldn’t have
been able to tell any difference between the two authors."

"Its stirring and challenging."

"I loved reading your sequel to Huckleberry Finn, he’s so cute, smart, and
he’s always thinking, will you please write another one?"

"I didn’t want it to end."

"I think there are too few that have an understanding of the process of
acculturation, how it has been working, and what it means to our world. The
felicity of your book is both subtle and deep! Yours is perhaps the greatest
epiphany in the land of notions. Describing the course of all is not
insentient matter — we are all one as you write and we read — your book is
very humorous — I open it at any place after pg. 73 and laugh as I read —
your huge concept of Huck Finn knowing more about civilization than most
other people alive today is supremely ironic — transcendently educational —
your ironic humor may be beyond any of the ironies ever written by
Twain,.... hope and courage serve as great impetus — however it’s clear the
crux presented at the end of your novel is an understanding which serves as
amazingly true leadership whose description can benefit all of humanity. A
monumental giant, both yours and Twain’s."

"I want to read it again."

"How did you ever get inside Twain’s mind?"

"I've read you novel twice and started on it again, and I don't care about
any MORE TWAIN!, I just want a sequel to your book."

9)FROM THE REVIEW: A circuitous obscure account,— accumulatively affirming
that the reviewer admires the novel, while his admiration is only nominally
made known, rather than distinctly stated. Which the reviewer then follows
with a comparison gobble-tee-guk analogy about Hamlet, Churchill, Oliver,
etc..

Many more examples of how the review deviates from a standard book review
and the novel could be cited. The few examples above give some depth, but
are brief compared to a large number of considerations. The review barely
considers sensible themes alive in the novel. The novel can stand on its own
with a responsible and open-minded book review of the history, truth, and
Twain, along with other benefits, the novel contains.

The sequel to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is the result of many
dedicated and expensive years of in-depth research. The time invested in
research alone, makes the cost of the novel negligible, particularly when
some of the proceeds are being donated to a praiseworthy cause, The Mark
Twain Project, UC Berkeley, as the novel states on its back cover.

Sincerely,

The Publisher— newmillpublishing.com